China: ‘Guanxi’ creates social network obstacle

TRADITONAL VALUES:Western social networking giants are struggling to gain footing in China as they come up against ‘guanxi,’ a set system of personal connections

AFP, BEIJING, CHINA

Professional social networking Web sites, such as LinkedIn, that are trying to tap into China’s vast business world are finding a formidable domestic foe — the ingrained system of personal connections known as “guanxi (關係).”

Two leading sites, California-based LinkedIn and the French company Viadeo, are targeting networkers in the world’s most populous country, but acknowledge the challenges they face.

China has the world’s biggest online population at 564 million Internet users, but the history of Western Internet giants trying to establish themselves within it is littered with failures and disappointed retreats.

Google Inc relocated its servers to Hong Kong because of censorship and hacking, and now has only a small share of China’s search market, while Yahoo has had a troubled relationship with its Chinese partner, Alibaba (阿里巴巴).

Groupon’s entry was turbulent from the start. It closed several offices and laid off hundreds of staff just months after its launch.

Business network sites face a huge obstacle of their own: China’s system of personal relationships reinforced by mutual favors, known as guanxi, which plays a vital role in conducting business and navigating government bureaucracy.

“I don’t think Chinese have the same needs in terms of professional networks as people in the West, because of the concept of guanxi,” said Wei Wuhui (魏武揮), a professor at Jiaotong University in Shanghai.

Online alternatives will have a hard time supplanting its deeply embedded role, he added.

“In China, people do not want to meet with people they don’t know. The Chinese have a culture based on relationships among family members and close friends,” he said.

Just 1 percent of LinkedIn’s 200 million worldwide users come from China. It opened an office in Hong Kong last year, but has yet to offer a platform in Mandarin, despite already being available in Romanian, Malay and a dozen other languages.

“Entry into China is complicated and not something that we take lightly,” company spokesman Roger Pua said. “We’re focused on getting it right.”

France’s Viadeo has made its way in by trying to adapt to the environment — it acquired the leading Chinese equivalent, Tianji (天際), and its own founder and chief executive Dan Serfaty has relocated to China.

It has sought to promote the site as a way to maintain users’ guanxi and the service now boasts 14 million users, with half a million more registering each month, Serfaty said.

“For a long time, the Internet in China was about fun and gaming,” he said. “We try to make the user experience more fun than on other platforms,” citing emoticons and a salary game that lets users compare their pay to others’.

With fake qualifications rife in China and distrust of the Web ingrained, Viadeo is also developing a system to check profiles, akin to Twitter’s verified identities, which will be launched “very soon,” Serfaty said.

Tianji user and Beijing-based software designer Li Lian believes this type of online service will play a valuable role as China’s job market evolves.

“I find all kinds of companies on the site along with descriptions of jobs they are offering, which I can apply for if I think I have a chance,” he said. “I can also put my personal details on Tianji to let potential employers know my skills, and that allows me to increase my chances of getting a better job.”